What Was US Government Doing During Harvey ???

I don't know whether or not you noticed, but it seemed like the majority of rescues conducted during Hurricane Harvey were by civilians or local resources.

What was the US government doing? Harassing peaceful protesters?

Here's a photo of their response to a pipeline protest:

Source - https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2017/09/mercenaries-who-applied-to-work-for.html

Note the big trucks sent to crush the protest. Did you see any such trucks in Houston to help after Harvey? I didn't.