"Since the paperwork is already there, it could get through quicker than we think."
Uh... Not really.
The law expired. It doesn't matter if the "paperwork" is there - the law expired.
Sure, someone from Congress could use it as a starting point for writing a new law, but it's not just as simply as saying "Hey, let's bring XXX, which expired a couple of years ago, back to life. All in favor?" and by a voice vote it becomes law again.
Also, there's already been an attempt to reinitiate the ban, word for word. So far it's languishing in committee with a grand total of 4 sponsors.
Anything that is proposed has to go through the full legislative process. How long that process takes is COMPLETELY open to debate. This is a completely different congress than the one that passed it in 1994; the times are different, the realities are different, and the AWB helped cost the Democrats a LOT of seats in Congress in the 1994 midterms and is counted as a huge factor in costing the Dems. the White House in 2000. They may be many things, but they're not dumb. They fully know that the potential exists for the exact same thing to happen today.
Pelosi's reaction to Holder's pronouncement is a pretty good indication that the Dems know that the next couple of years are VERY tenuous for them.
If their economic stimulus plan doesn't start turning things around, and things get even worse AND they ram through an AWB?
They're smart enough to recognize that the mid terms would probably be even worse for them than they were in 1994.