WASHINGTON — In a direct challenge to President Bush, a House panel said today it has prepared subpoenas to force CIA officials to testify about the agency’s secret destruction of interrogation videotapes.

The Justice Department had blocked the officials from appearing at a closed hearing before the panel this week, citing the department’s ongoing investigation into the destruction of videotapes of the harsh interrogation of two Al Qaeda suspects in 2002. The CIA destroyed the tapes in 2005.

The House Intelligence Committee’s threat marked the second challenge to a White House attempt to shut down independent investigations into the matter, and escalates a fight over which branch of government properly has jurisdiction. Yesterday, a federal judge rejected an administration effort to keep the courts out of the investigation, and summoned Justice Department lawyers to court on Friday to discuss whether destroying the tapes violated a court order to preserve evidence about detainees.

Across Capitol Hill, Senators also voiced frustration about being denied details of the CIA’s destruction of videotaped terror interrogations, urging the Bush administration’s nominee for deputy attorney general to cooperate with congressional inquiries.

There was little doubt after the two-hour hearing, however, that U.S. District Judge Mark Filip would easily win Senate approval for the Justice Department’s no. 2 job.

His confirmation hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee came amid a brewing legal showdown over the tapes the CIA acknowledged were destroyed in 2005. Democrats who control the House and Senate are demanding more information about the videos against the Justice Department’s claims that releasing such details might taint what could become a criminal case.

“I hope that Mark Filip reassures us that he understands that the duty of the deputy attorney general is to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law — not work to circumvent it,” the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, said pointedly in his opening remarks.

Senator Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel’s top Republican, said the Justice Department’s refusal blocks congressional oversight. “The law is plain that Congress has pre-eminence over the Department of Justice on these investigations,” Mr. Specter said.

Mr. Filip, a Chicago native and federal judge of three years, said he hoped to find a compromise between the two sides instead of favoring one or the other.

“I would hope that I don’t have to pick between the two,” Mr. Filip said.

At an early morning speech to the American Bar Association, Attorney General Mukasey declined to comment on the ongoing inquiry and indicated to a reporter that Mr. Filip would not be able to shed additional light on the issue either.

Mr. Mukasey gave a 20-minute speech urging Congress to approve legislation to allow the government to eavesdrop on terror suspects overseas without court permission.

A federal judge ruled this week that the Bush administration must answer questions about the destroyed videos of two Al Qaeda suspects and set a hearing for Friday for the government to try to justify keeping courts out of the investigation.

Mr. Filip also refused to say whether he considers waterboarding a form of torture, echoing Mr. Mukasey’s confirmation hearings in October on an issue that nearly derailed Senate approval of the new attorney general. Mr. Filip called waterboarding “repugnant” but said he would wait for Mr. Mukasey to finish a review of Justice Department legal opinions before deciding whether it is torture.