By Morgan Rimmer, CNN

(CNN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed Wednesday that Republicans will not make cuts to Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security as they work to pass – and pay for – President Donald Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda.

“The White House has made a commitment. The president said over and over and over, ‘We’re not going to touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.’ We’ve made the same commitment. Now that said, what we are going to do is go into those programs and carve out the fraud, waste and abuse, and find efficiencies,” Johnson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source.”

Though Trump has repeatedly said he will not cut entitlement programs, including during his administration’s first Cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday, Republicans have long sought to shrink Medicaid.

Pressed on how they would cut the amount laid out in the House’s budget blueprint without touching Medicare and Medicaid, Johnson argued that it is possible through work requirements and other cuts. Johnson also said that per capita caps on federal funding for those programs are “off the table.”

“Let’s let this play out,” he added.

Johnson’s promise came hours after House Republicans passed a budget blueprint to advance Trump’s legislative priorities, but it awaits Senate approval. Not all GOP senators are in favor of the trillions of dollars in spending cuts included in the House-passed version that Johnson was forced to add by conservative hardliners, as CNN has reported.

The House GOP plan calls for at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts – and if it doesn’t hit $2 trillion, it forces tax-writers to downsize some of their plans. Almost $1 trillion of that will come from savings in the Energy and Commerce Committee, which even some Republicans fear could mean steep cuts to the popular health program Medicaid.

That’s yet another nonstarter for some Senate Republicans, particularly those from states where Medicaid enrollment accelerated after local leaders accepted more federal cash under the Affordable Care Act.

As the March 14 government funding deadline looms, Johnson acknowledged that Congress may have to settle for a yearlong resolution maintaining spending at current levels – with carveouts and adjustments to align with the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts, including to the US Agency for International Development. Those kinds of changes are likely to anger Democrats, whose support Johnson may need to pass the resolution.

“That’s why I say you add anomalies to a (continuing resolution); you can increase some spending, you can decrease some spending,” Johnson said, referring to a short-term stopgap spending bill. “You can add language that says, for example, the dramatic changes that have been made to USAID would be reflected in the ongoing spending.”

“It would be a clean CR mostly, I think, but with some of those changes to adapt to the new realities here,” the Louisiana Republican added. “And the new reality is less government, more efficiency, better return for the taxpayers.”

CNN’s Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.

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