IDK, sounds like it's a bunch of stupid misc. fees. So instead of just raising the minimum wage for H1Bs and indexing it to inflation, they raise taxes (and these taxes on H1Bs don't seem like a consequential funding source. They might even bring in less tax revenue than raising the H1B minimum wage to where it should be if it had originally been indexed to inflation.)

I don't see anything supporting this in the text of OBBB, nor in the definition of domestic research expense (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-regs/research_credit_basic_sec41...). Where did you see this?

Edit: Oh you mean costs in general, not in the context of section 147

Meh.

If you hire H-1B you should be required to pay a fee greater than it costs to educate an equivalent American. Otherwise you're always in the situation where you have to hire foreigners because no Americans are trained. (or in reality you hire foreigners because they're cheaper for the same role which this no longer makes it the case)

Source?