Chairman Darrell Issa said, "Our purpose has never been to hold the attorney general in contempt. Our purpose has always been to get the information the committee needs to complete its work, that it is not only entitled to, but obligated to do."
Earlier in the day President Obama invoked executive privilege on documents that contain information on Operation Gunrunner, which Holder had been in charge of.
Some see the move by the Committee as a retaliatory response to Obama's.
On Tuesday night, Holder made an attempt to convince Issa not to move against him, offering up certain documents, but not all of the ones that the Committee had asked for.
Holder has been repeatedly questioned by the Committee, even since guns connected to Gunrunner were used to kill a US Border Patrol agent, in 2010.
The Committee originally asked for the documents in February of 2011, at which time the Justice Department denied anything existed. The denial was later withdrawn.
Leading Democrats in the Senate have accused the Republican led House Committee of only pushing the issue to hurt Obama's reelection campaign.
Republicans fired back by pointing to the obvious attempts to hide the information regarding the operation from the Committee.
Investigators have stated that much of the operation was illegal in nature, and any government officials found to have been involved could not just face firing or impeachment, but criminal charges as well.
Weapons involved in the operation have been linked to several other murders in the US, as well as hundreds, if not thousands, of murders in Mexico.
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