GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Rep. Justin Amash, who sits on the federal Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, said today that Attorney General Eric Holder's defiance of a congressional subpoena earned him a contempt of Congress charge.

Amash, R-Cascade Township, has been among a group of Republicans who have called for Holder to resign for the botched “Fast and Furious” program that led to the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, a Michigan native.

“Attorney General Holder has refused to comply with a congressional subpoena requiring him to hand over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. Pursuing contempt was not the Committee’s nor my first choice for resolving the issue. Unfortunately, the Department of Justice forced the Committee’s action by deliberately obstructing our investigation,” Amash said in a statement.

“The American people demand we hold accountable those who were responsible for this reckless and deadly operation.”

Amash is Michigan's lone representative on the committee. The 23-17 vote followed party lines and Speaker of the House John Boehner has scheduled a full vote of the body next week.

The committee has been investigating the operation since February 2011. Authorities say the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives deliberately allowed criminals to smuggle more than 1,000 guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Fast and Furious finally came to a halt when the gun operation led to the Terry’s death.

President Barack Obama today invoked executive privilege to withhold from a Congressional oversight committee some documents and communications among his advisers regarding the failed gun enforcement operation, the New York Times reported.

Holder is the first in the Obama administration, and the first Attorney General, to face contempt charges, but it's not all that rare, according to the Washington Post.

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