While in Congress, he was a member of the Committee on Education and Labor, where he played a leading role[citation needed] in writing most of the federal legislation enacted during that time concerning schools, colleges and universities; services for the elderly and the handicapped; libraries and museums; and the arts and humanities.

Brademas was instrumental[citation needed] in helping the South Bend area recover from the Studebaker closing through his contacts in Washington.

In 1964, after receiving an $81 million contract from the government, Kaiser Jeep Corporation purchased the Chippewa Avenue truck plant from Studebaker, and put a sizable number of people back to work building military and postal vehicles.

Today, although the Chippewa plant is no longer in use, AM General, successor to Kaiser Jeep and American Motors Corporation, produces the military Humvee and the Hummer H1 and H2 in Mishawaka, Indiana, just east of South Bend.

[citation needed] Brademas was defeated for reelection on November 4, 1980, by Republican John Hiler in an outcome that was driven largely by the national political climate and the Ronald Reagan vs. Jimmy Carter presidential election campaign.

Film actress Paulette Goddard left her multimillion-dollar estate to New York University in large part due to her friendship with Brademas.

[citation needed] Brademas served on a number of boards and national commissions on subjects ranging from the arts to higher education, foreign policy, jobs and small business, historic documents and records, and science, technology and government.

He was the chairman of the American Ditchley Foundation and co-chaired the Center for Science, Technology and Congress at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. Brademas served as chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as well as on the boards of Overseers of Harvard, New York Stock Exchange, Rockefeller Foundation and the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches.