(Salt Lake City, UT) — Two state Senate Democrats believe they were removed from committee assignments because of their criticism of Republican colleagues. State Senators Derek Kitchen and Kathleen Riebe learned they had been removed from one of their committees yesterday. Kitchen was taken off the Education Committee and Riebe was removed from the Government Operations Committee. Both say they were not notified of the change in advance. Senate leaders said in a statement that the change was made to even out committee assignments between parties.