WASHINGTON — A congressional panel voted Wednesday to charge Attorney General Eric Holder with contempt of Congress after the Obama administration invoked executive privilege for the first time since coming to office, withholding some documents related to a failed gun-running investigation.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives’ Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on a party-line vote, decided to cite the nation’s top law enforcement officer in connection with the operation, code-named “Fast and Furious.” The move set up a new confrontation between Democratic President Barack Obama and Congress.

“It’s disappointing that the committee had to vote on contempt,” U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H., a committee member, said in a written statement. “I had hoped for months that the Department of Justice would comply with the subpoena. But that didn’t happen. This involves much more than a disagreement between two branches of government; we must always remember that a U.S. Border Patrol agent’s life was lost and thousands of firearms were illegally allowed to fall into drug cartels’ hands.

“Congress has the constitutional responsibility to exercise oversight over the federal government’s activities, and to hold officials accountable for those activities. The committee fulfilled that responsibility with today’s vote. It is unfortunate that this issue is diverting time and effort away from addressing our country’s problems, such as the pressing need for more good, middle-class jobs.”

Republican House leaders said they would schedule a vote in the full House next week on the contempt charge. House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor said if the requested documents were submitted before that vote, it would provide an opportunity to resolve the issue.

“Until now, everyone believed that the decisions regarding ‘Fast and Furious were confined to the Department of Justice,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner.

He added, “The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the Fast and Furious operation or the cover-up that followed.”

Presidents since Richard Nixon have claimed executive privilege to protect internal documents and conversations in similar disputes with Congress with varying results, as the courts have never given Presidents any absolute authority to defy subpoenas from Congress.

Even before the vote, the White House criticized the panel.

“Instead of creating jobs or strengthening the middle-class, congressional Republicans are spending their time on a politically motivated, taxpayer-funded election-year fishing expedition,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said.

Chairman Darrell Issa and other Republicans on the panel accused the Justice Department that Holder heads of stonewalling and trying to protect its political appointees from potentially embarrassing revelations about the botched gun-running probe.

“The frustration of this committee in not getting documents for a year and a half must be satisfied today,” Issa said.

The “Fast and Furious” operation was meant to help federal law enforcement agents follow the flow of guns from Arizona into Mexico, where they were thought to fall into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels.

A similar operation was conducted during Bush’s administration.

U.S. agents lost track of many of the weapons, which later were involved in crimes, including the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Fast and Furious ran from late 2009 until early 2011.

Word of the fumbled operation prompted Congress to investigate the Obama administration’s handling of it.