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U.S. Representative Eric Massa, a New York Democrat who announced earlier this week he had decided not to seek re-election, said yesterday he will resign his seat on March 8.

Massa, in a statement on his official Web site, cited a House ethics committee investigation as the reason for his decision to step down, saying it “would tear my family and my staff apart.”

Massa, who has had cancer in the past, had given health reasons for his March 3 announcement that he wouldn’t seek a second term in November.

Hours after that announcement, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, disclosed that the House ethics committee has been investigating “allegations of misconduct” against Massa.

In his statement yesterday, Massa said he learned only after deciding to retire that he had made a staff member “uncomfortable” by using language in the office that “might make a chief petty officer uncomfortable.” Massa is a Navy veteran.

“I know that my own language failed to meet the standards that I set for all around me and myself,” said Massa. “I fell short and I believe now, as I have always believed, that it is not enough to simply talk the talk, but rather I must take action to hold myself accountable.”