 In his final re-election campaign in 1998, he came up with 55% of the vote.In the 102nd and the 103rd Congresses, he served as chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, which is now the House Committee on Science.Brown died on July 15, 1999, at the age of 79 in Bethesda, Maryland, from an infection developed following heart valve replacement surgery in May of that year while he was serving his 18th term in the House.