Washington (CNN) The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt over a dispute related to the Trump administration's efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The vote was 230-198, largely along party lines. Four Democrats broke with their party and voted against the resolution. One independent -- Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan -- supported the resolution.

The vote marks the first time that the full House has voted on criminal contempt of Trump administration officials since Democrats took over the majority. The move is virtually guaranteed to further inflame hostilities between the administration and House Democrats as they pursue oversight efforts. It is unclear, however, what practical impact the House contempt vote will have since a US attorney is not likely to take action against the head of their own Justice Department.

The latest escalation in tensions between House Democrats and the administration comes after the House Oversight Committee approved a resolution last month recommending that the House find Barr and Ross in contempt "for refusal to comply with subpoenas" issued as part of the panel's investigation into the push to include a question about citizenship in the upcoming census.

After the Supreme Court last month blocked the question from being added to the census, Trump created uncertainty over what would happen when he insisted that efforts to add the question were "absolutely moving forward" despite statements from both his Department of Justice and secretary of commerce that the administration was printing the census without the question. But at the end of last week, Trump retreated , instead asking government agencies to provide records that could determine a head-count of citizens without polling census-takers directly.

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