You wrote "to pay a 2016 outstanding debt". This was likely an "offset", a program administered by the Department of the Treasury to collect things like student loan debts, child support, and the like.
TurboTax has no way to know if you had an offset. TurboTax uses only the data you supply to create a tax return.
If you want to know why the Offset Program didn't catch up with you earlier, please see https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc203 and call them.
