BATON ROUGE (AP) — Legislation that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration said will open more governor’s office documents to public scrutiny was approved by the state Senate on Wednesday.

Records relating to the ‘‘deliberative process of the governor’’ would remain secret under the measure, which was backed by Jindal. The bill was approved 35-4 and sent to the House.

Jindal allies fought off amendments that would have made the governor’s schedule public and that would have required him to preserve secret documents for release ten years after he leaves office.

Fighting the bill on the Senate floor was a fellow Republican, Robert Adley, R-Benton. Adley said the bill contains a loophole that he argued keeps too many documents secret.

The governor’s office has long enjoyed a broad exemption from the state public records law, which was enacted more than 60 years ago. Adley and Rep. Wayne Waddell, R-Shreveport, have been trying to remove that exemption but have run into stiff opposition from the Jindal administration.

During Wednesday’s debate, Adley borrowed lines from the 2008 inaugural speech in which Jindal proclaimed, ‘‘We must change. We will change’’ during a call for ethical, open government.

‘‘We must change. We will change — except when it applies to me,’’ Adley shouted.

During the floor debate, bill sponsor Sen. Jody Amedee, D-Gonzales, and others defended allowing the governor to keep his schedule private, saying it could be a security issue even days after the events have occurred if someone wishing the governor harm could discern a pattern of travel.

Some people who meet with the governor ‘‘might not want their names in the paper,’’ Amedee said.

One aspect of the governor’s schedule will be made public. The bill includes language requiring state police to maintain travel logs on all travel by the governor in a state police helicopter. The logs will be available for public inspection.

Going into the debate, backers of an even stronger open records bill said the measure contained language that could make more state documents secret.

Amedee pledged to tighten the language. His new version narrows the broad exemption for the governor in the current law, protecting from public view documents relating to ‘‘the deliberative process of the governor, intra-office communications of the governor and his internal staff, or the governor’s security and schedule.’’

Adley said the bill does not limit the exemption to governor’s office staff and could allow people in other agencies to keep documents secret by claiming they are part of the governor’s deliberative process.

Jindal executive counsel Jimmy Faircloth said this aspect of the bill would not become a major loophole.

‘‘The number of people in state government that actually work and recommend to the governor ideas is very small I mean it’s very, very small. So if some person in some agency wanted to try to hide a document and they said I’m going to try to misuse the privilege — good luck,’’ Faircloth said.

He said the provision would bring Louisiana more in line with other states and there is court precedent holding that the governor enjoys an executive privilege allowing him to protect the secrecy of documents.

Faircloth said the bill would make available requests to the governor from constituents, lobbyists or legislators.

Adley was able to amend the bill: If anyone asks for a document that the governor’s office deems secret, the document would have to be preserved for 30 days, which would provide an opportunity to challenge the decision to keep it secret.

On the Net:

Amedee’s SB278 and the amendments can be seen at www.legis.state.la.us