Metro Areas
The Metro Areas are large mega-cities which house nearly the entirety of the United States population. The Metro Areas have assumed the rights and responsibilities originally afforded to the states under the U.S. Constitution.
The Metro Areas were first created in 1985, as a result of Executive Order 13578. The Plagues had debilitated the nation's infrastructure, limiting food production and making it nearly impossible to transport what little food could be grown or fished. To manage the difficulty in transporting resources, the United States government created the eight Metro Areas. By condensing the United States population, the Metro Areas made it much easier to dispense food, heating, and medical services.
Immigration to the eight Metro Areas was mandatory. Any location outside the Metro Areas was designated a Non-Assisted Area. This meant the government made no guarantee of safety or attempt to provide services. It was illegal to remain in a Non-Assisted Area. Law Enforcement officials did conduct a number of raids to forcibly re-locate communities that developed within the Non-Assisted Area, though this strategy has not been employed for some time. By 1989, an estimated 90% of the population was living in the Metro Areas or approximately 140 million people. That number has since increased to approximately 175 million.
In 1988 the United States Congress adopted the Twenty-Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment bestowed the rights and responsibilities originally delegated to the fifty States to the eight Metro Areas. The number of Senators was increased to 104, or 13 Senators for each of the eight Metro Areas. The House of Representatives remained unchanged, with the original session remaining in power until a census could be performed in 1990 allowing for elections.
