 His work eventually brought him into conflict with the intelligence community and he eventually resigned from the committee in protest.He also was a staunch defender of civil liberties and human rights.In 1992, for example, he led a 60 Minutes investigative team to Central America to expose the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars for the construction of export processing zones in which workers were being grossly mistreated and denied their fundamental human rights as they made apparel and other consumer products exported back to the U.S. His investigation and expose surfaced in the 1992 presidential election campaign and also resulted in the Congress immediately cutting off the use of any taxpayer funds for the development of such export zones (EPZs) anywhere outside of the U.S.

Brown's wife was Marta Macias.