As consul he took part in a number of Senate debates. His first chance to shine in the Senate came in the dispute between ex-praetor Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Cornelius failed to give his seat to Corbulo at a gladiatorial show, and the incident sparked a debate between the rights of age and the defenders of tradition, in which Drusus argued a rapprochement. In another, it was proposed by Caecina Severus that the wives of governors be banned from joining their husbands in the provinces. Caecina delivered a speech in support of the bill, followed with speeches by both Valerius Messalinus and Drusus in opposition to it. The proposal was then abandoned, not because of the arguments made, but because of the intervention of an external force (the "auctoritas" of Drusus)--the same reason for the later repeal of the Oppian law ("lex Oppia").