Pennsylvania State Capitol. Photo: Zack Frank/Shutterstock.com

Following is a listing of executive and legislative action for the week of Dec. 9. The Pennsylvania Senate was set to return to session Wednesday. The state House of Representatives was in recess and set to return to session Monday.

Prosecutor Guidelines

The county prosecutors' association in Pennsylvania gave its members guidelines Dec. 11 about informing defendants when police officers on their cases have been shown to be dishonest or biased, or may have committed crimes or engaged in certain types of misconduct at work.

The Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association released model standards regarding how to handle evidence that could cast doubts about an officer's trial testimony.

The association said the nonbinding guidelines will help prosecutors maintain quality standards during criminal investigations and prosecutions, and protect the rights of victims and defendants. Some instances would lead prosecutors not to use the officer as a witness, while in other cases they could be a witness but the information would be disclosed to the defense.

Local police agencies should have to tell county prosecutors when there are circumstances that could raise doubts about an officer's credibility as a trial witness, the association said.

If county prosecutors investigate and conclude that there's reason to doubt an officer's integrity and credibility, they can put him or her on a list of officers who are not to be used as trial witnesses or on search warrants or criminal complaints.

Officers would be given 30 days to ask county prosecutors to reconsider their status.

Social Services

Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians stand to lose food stamps or see their benefits reduced under three sets of changes to the program being advanced by the Trump administration, state officials said Dec. 10.

Gov. Tom Wolf's administration opposes all three changes, saying that the federal government is simply taking away benefits without helping people improve their circumstances.

"How does taking away someone's food budget help them get a job?" Wolf's Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller told a Capitol news conference Dec. 10. "How does removing assistance help anyone toward self-sufficiency? It doesn't, it only creates more challenges and barriers for people who already experience significant barriers."

Miller said roughly 90,000 Pennsylvanians could lose their eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Program, known as SNAP, when a rule takes effect that limits states from exempting work-eligible adults from having to maintain steady employment in order to receive benefits.

The rule will take effect in April. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has said the rule will help move people "from welfare to work."

One draft rule proposed in October to set a national standard utility allowance when determining monthly food stamp benefits would hurt Pennsylvania and potentially reduce the monthly benefit for 775,000 households in the state, Miller said. She said the federal government didn't provide enough detail about the proposal to say predict how steep the reduction could be.

Another draft rule proposed in July to stop allowing states to exceed federal income eligibility thresholds for the food-assistance program could strip another 200,000 people of food stamps eligibility, Miller said.

Most of the roughly 1.7 million Pennsylvanians who receive food stamps qualify under current federal guidelines that forbid people who make more than 130% of the federal poverty level—or about $32,000 a year total for a family of four—from qualifying for food stamp benefits.

Many states believe the cap is too restrictive, but the Trump administration wants to end the practice where states take advantage of a decade-old policy that allows them to make a broader pool of low-income workers and their families eligible for food stamps by automatically qualifying them if they receive a federally funded welfare benefit.

In Pennsylvania, about 200,000 food-stamp recipients qualify under that expanded eligibility.

The state allows them to be eligible for food stamps if they earn up to 160% of the federal poverty level, or about $40,000 a year.

Wolf administration officials say families that lose food stamps earlier have a higher risk of falling back into poverty and returning to applying for benefits programs for help.

For someone with no income, food stamps provide the equivalent of up to $192 per month in food for one person, or $642 per month for a family of four. VP Speculation

Gov. Tom Wolf said Dec. 11 that the answer is "no" to speculation that he would agree to join a Democratic presidential nominee's ticket as the pick for vice president.

Wolf reiterated that stance when asked during an appearance with his wife Frances on WITF-FM's Smart Talk program in Harrisburg.

Wolf also said he seriously doubts that anybody would ask him to join the ticket and he quipped that, if he did join the presidential ticket, his wife would divorce him before their 45th anniversary in June. Wolf has not endorsed a candidate in the crowded Democratic presidential primary race.

Wolf's name has surfaced because of his 17-percentage point re-election victory last year in a battleground state that is of the utmost importance to Democrats in next year's presidential election.

In beating Democrat Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania in 2016′s election, Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential nominee to win Pennsylvania since 1988.

For Democrats, Pennsylvania is an outsize electoral prize: Harry S. Truman in 1948 was the last Democratic presidential candidate to lose Pennsylvania but win the election.