WASHINGTON — The leaders of a House panel told Attorney General Eric Holder today that they have serious concerns about the Justice Department’s gathering of phone records at The Associated Press.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he worries about any infringement on freedom of the press in light of the Justice Department’s actions in the investigation of national security leaks.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said he was “troubled by the notion that our government would pursue a broad array of phone records over a period of time.”

Holder is certain to face aggressive questioning by the Republican-led committee on topics ranging from the Justice Department’s gathering of AP phone records to the government’s handling of intelligence before the Boston Marathon bombings.

Goodlatte said he was concerned about the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service, which is now the focus of an investigation by Holder’s Justice Department.

Responding to news of the gathering of AP records, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., planned to revive a 2009 media shield bill that protects journalists and their employers from having to reveal information, including the identity of sources who had been promised confidentiality.

The White House threw its support behind the legislation. Ed Pagano, President Barack Obama’s liaison to the Senate, placed a call Wednesday morning to Schumer’s office to ask him to revive the bill, a move the senator had planned to make.