Abraham was elected to represent Michigan in the United States Senate in 1994,and he served until 2001 after being defeated for reelection in 2000 by Debbie Stabenow. He was the only Lebanese American in the chamber. According to the New York Times,state Republicans attributed his loss to "scathing advertisements by a wide range of special interest groups,including advertisements that criticized Mr. Abraham's support for a relaxation of some immigration restrictions".[3] During the campaign,the Federation for American Immigration Reform,an anti-immigration advocacy group with ties to white nationalism,[4] ran ads asking:"Why is Senator Spencer Abraham trying to make it easier for terrorists like Osama bin Laden to export their war of terror to any city street in America?"[5][6][7] The media denounced these commercials as "vengeful".[8] In 1996,when President Bill Clinton endorsed Representative Barbara Jordan's proposed cuts to legal immigration,Abraham played a leading role in blocking the cuts.[9] Another factor in his defeat was his vote to convict Clinton in his 1999 impeachment trial.[10] The next year he received the "Defender of the Melting Pot" award from the National Council of La Raza for his efforts on immigration.[11]
Abraham served on the Budget, Commerce, Science and Transportation, Judiciary, and Small Business Committees. He also chaired two subcommittees: Manufacturing and Competitiveness, and Immigration. Abraham authored the H1B Visa in Global and National Commerce Act, establishing a federal framework for online contracts and signatures; the Government Paperwork Elimination Act, and the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which protects Internet domain names for businesses and persons against copyright and trademark infringements. In 1999, Abraham co-sponsored S.896, a bill to abolish the U.S. Department of Energy, which would have transferred control of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in large part to the Defense Department.[12]
U.S. Energy Secretary
Abraham working as the Secretary of Energy near Yucca Mountain
In 2001, George W. Bush appointed Abraham Secretary of Energy. On November 15, 2004, Abraham announced that he would resign from this position, effective with the swearing-in of his successor, Samuel W. Bodman, on February 1, 2005.
From 2005 to 2007, Abraham was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University. After leaving office, he opened The Abraham Group,[14] a Washington DC–based international strategic consulting firm, of which he is chairman and CEO.[15][16]
In 2006, Abraham was appointed Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of AREVA Inc., the American arm of the French nuclear company Areva, which is planning to build EPR nuclear power plants in the United States and is building the mixed oxide fuel (MOX) manufacturing plant at the Savannah River Site to convert legacy weapons-grade plutonium into power station fuel.[15][18]
With William Tucker, Abraham wrote Lights Out!: Ten Myths About (and Real Solutions to) America's Energy Crisis (2010).
Abraham, Spencer (with William Tucker). (2010) Lights Out!: Ten Myths About (and Real Solutions to) America's Energy Crisis. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN978-0-312-57021-7
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