[citation needed] In 2008, Downey conducted similar forums at both the Democratic and Republican National Party Conventions.
NCR successfully worked with the late Silvio Conte (R-MA) to pass the Congressional Resolution, signed by President George H. W. Bush, declaring the 1990s the "Decade of the Brain".
Prior to going into private practice, Downey was director of governmental and legal affairs for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
He led successful efforts for requiring judicial review of Medicare Part B benefits, Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug Administration regulation of hearing aid sales, the hearing conservation regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the establishment of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and enactment of the Noise Control Act.
Downey worked for Ralph Nader and promoted reforms of the presidential campaign financing system and lobbied for higher penalties for corporate crime.
In the early 1970s, Downey was active in the anti-war movement including the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam in October 1968 and the demonstration in Washington in May 1970 following the invasion of Cambodia and the shootings at Kent State.
During law school, he worked on the staff of the McGovern-Fraser Commission on revisions to the Democratic Party's presidential nomination process.